This bizarre footage shows a woman knocking a live fish against a metal railing to get it to stop moving after she bought it fresh and was on her way home to cook it.

The incident was caught on video by a bystander at a bus station in Chengdu, in south-western China’s Sichuan Province.

In the clip, the woman can be seen casually smacking the carp’s head against the railing until she knocks it unconscious.

The fish was still alive after she bought it from a local seller and, apparently worried it might disturb the other passengers, she banged it against the handrail until it stopped wriggling before boarding the bus home.

The scene sparked ridicule online, with some netizens on Douyin, the Chinese TikTok, where the video was shared on 9th March, sarcastically dubbing her “kindhearted”.

One user called ‘Yan Daxi’ said: “You are so kind! Afraid of fish getting car sick and knocking him out early.”

Another, going by ‘cold-blooded tadpole’, added. “Fish: You really don’t want to be a civilized citizen anymore.”

While ‘Sister Hongying’ said: “Whenever I buy fish, I ‘drown’ them in water, before I take them on board the bus.”